


Light the Fire Inside

by ellacj



Category: Rizzoli & Isles
Genre: F/F, Universe Alteration, also she's not the medical examiner yet, in jane's building, just go with it, maura lives in an apartment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-24
Updated: 2014-10-24
Packaged: 2018-02-22 09:39:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2503175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ellacj/pseuds/ellacj
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jane gets woken up by the fire alarm.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Light the Fire Inside

Jane wakes up on the floor.

Her alarm clock flashes 3:12am, but that’s not what’s making the loud, incessant beeping. “Shit,” she mutters, fumbling in the dark room for her sweatshirt. The sound of her front door being broken down echoes throughout the apartment and two men burst into her room clothes in fire-protective gear.

“Ma’am, you need to get out, now.”

Grumbling something about pants, Jane hoists herself off of the ground, hurrying to the living room, scooping Jo Friday out of her bed, and running out the door to the stairs.

It’s freezing when she gets outside to stand with the other people in her building. She holds Jo Friday tightly to her chest, reveling in the warmth the dog’s fur offers. Then Jo Friday starts barking. She leaps out of Jane’s arms, scampering over to a woman standing a few feet away in a soft-looking blue robe. Jo Friday jumps at her legs, causing the woman to jump and glance in Jane’s direction.

The woman is _gorgeous_. Her hair is in a bun and it’s dark out, but from what Jane can tell it’s honey-blonde. And her eyes, reflecting the flames dancing in the window of one apartment, are the most luminescent green Jane’s ever seen. “Is this your dog?” she asks, voice rich and sweet.

“Yeah. I am _so_ sorry, she’s not usually like this…” Jane trails off and leans down to scoop a squirming Jo Friday into her arms. “You’re a terrible dog, Jo Friday.”

“Jo Friday?” The woman smirks.

Jane snorts. “I didn’t name her, my partner did.”

“Your partner.”

“No, no, not that kind of partner,” Jane says quickly (why does she care what this woman thinks anyhow?). “I’m a detective for BPD. My partner’s got a soft spot for animals. Picked this one up off of death row at the shelter.”

“That’s so sweet.” The woman smiles. “I’m Maura.”

“Jane.”

Maura leans closer to scratch behind Jo Friday’s ear, and Jane’s heart races as she feels Maura’s breath that close to her face. She’s suddenly _very_ aware of her gray flannel boyshorts and significant lack of pants. She’s snapped out of her thoughts, however, when Maura starts speaking.

“And do you have a _partner_?”

“Why?”

Maura shrugs, a sly grin coloring her face. “No reason.”

Jane smirks. “Not at the moment, no.”

“I’ll have to keep that in mind.”

Jo Friday starts to calm in Jane’s arms beneath Maura’s touch, and her legs stop their wriggling as she rubs her head into the gentle caress. “She likes you,” Jane murmurs.

Maura grins. “She’s very sweet.”

 _You’re very sweet_ , Jane thinks, but she doesn’t let the words escape her lips. The last thing she needs is to say something stupid like that to a beautiful woman at three in the morning while she’s not wearing pants. And that alone almost makes her laugh. Of all the places to meet someone like this, it had to be like this?

“So what do you do then?” Jane asks, immediately wincing inside. _Small talk? Really? You’re better than that, Rizzoli_.

“I just finished my MD, and I’m in training to become a post-mortem medical examiner.”

Jane’s eyebrows shoot up. “You looking to go into the crime world?”

“I’ve considered it,” Maura says with a casual shrug. “Who knows, we may end up working together in the future.” She grins, bumping Jane’s shoulder with her own, oblivious to the rush of butterflies the touch sends to Jane’s stomach.

“Yeah. Maybe.”

“I like your sweatshirt.”

Glancing down at Maura’s teasing smile, Jane feels her cheeks burn. The sweatshirt she grabbed in the dark was Frankie’s high school baseball hoodie that somehow ended up in her apartment in the past year. She meant to give it back before she realized it was rather comfortable. “It was my brother’s,” she mutters. “It’s comfy.”

“I’m not saying anything.” Maura presses her lips together in a smile that says to Jane that she’s trying her hardest not to laugh. “I’m sorry, I’m just so tired. Everything’s funny to me when I haven’t had enough sleep.”

Jane wants to say she can relate, but she’d be lying. When she’s tired, she’s anything but happy and giggly. She’s tired, she’s cranky, she’s ten cups of coffee and homicidal thoughts (and no, the irony isn’t lost on her). “Well, maybe we’ll have to see each other when we’re not sleep-deprived then.”

Maura grins. “I think I’d like that. What apartment are you?”

“I’m in the basement, lucky me. Number 3. You?”

“812.”

“Oh, you’re a penthouse kind of girl.”

Maura chuckles to herself, ducking her head slightly before looking up beneath her eyelashes. It’s one of the most cliché, overdone moves in the book, but it’s overdone for a reason. Jane feels all the breath leave her body as she takes in the beauty in front of her. “I guess I just like being on top.”

 _Okay, that wasn’t even subtle_. Jane doesn’t know what to say, but she feels heat pooling in her stomach at Maura’s words and she thinks… she thinks… “Ever been shot through the foot?” _Okay, what?_

Maura frowns, pulling away with barely disguised confusion. “I can’t say that I have.”

“Well it hurts. A lot.” _Why the hell did I say that?_ Jane shouts in her mind. Maura was _blatantly_ flirting with her. She’s usually pretty smooth; what makes this time any different?

“I can imagine it would.”

Jane sighs, running a hand through dark curls mussed by sleep. “Sorry. I talk about random things when I get nervous.” _Nice, Rizzoli, tell the beautiful woman you’re nervous._

Maura’s smirk is back, paired with a twinkle in those green eyes that makes Jane’s heart go nuts. “How come you’re so nervous?”

“Well, for one thing, it’s 3:30 in the morning, my apartment building is on fire, my dog is freaking out, I’m outside talking to a really pretty lady, and I didn’t have time to put on pants.”

“Fair enough,” Maura laughs heartily. “So, when did you get shot through the foot?”

“It’s not some big exciting chase story if that’s what you’re looking for. We’re training a couple of new recruits, and one of them should _not_ have been trusted with a pistol. He didn’t get the job.”

Maura grins. “I wonder why.

“You know, he just didn’t have enough references.”

“Do you get shot at often?”

Jane shrugs. “They hardly ever hit. I mean most of the time, it’s just some guy firing at us in some last desperate hope, and if one ends up being a hit it’s just one to the shoulder or something. I haven’t gotten shot for real yet, lucky me.”

“What if you just jinxed yourself?”

“Then I hate you for making me.”

Maura smiles again, and god _damn_ , Jane could stare at nothing but that smile for hours on end.

“Fire’s under control; you’re all clear to go in,” one of the firemen calls from the front of the crowd gathered in the building.

Grateful to return to sleep, Jane grins. “Finally.” Then she turns to face Maura, and her good mood dissipates in an instant. She doesn’t want to say goodbye just yet to this intriguing woman.

“So when am I going to see you again?”

“Huh?” Jane says dumbly.

“You said we should see each other when we aren’t sleep-deprived.” Maura raises one eyebrow. “Or were you just saying that for my benefit?”

Jane shakes her head quickly to clear her foggy mind. “No, no, I definitely want to hang out sometime. You can come by my apartment anytime; I’m almost always home when I’m not working.”

“No plans with friends?”

“Not many friends to make plans with.”

“Me neither.” Maura smiles. “Walk inside with me?”

“Of course.”

The two of them walk into the building together with Jo Friday trotting at their ankles, hands at their sides just inches away from touching but neither of them brave enough to make the move. They walk in silence until they reach the staircase off of the lobby.

“I’ll see you around, Penthouse,” Jane says with a soft smile.

“Until next time, Basement.”

Jane watches Maura pull her blue robe around her and go up the stairs, bare feet making no sound on the linoleum, and she thinks maybe she wants to see Maura again. And again. She thinks maybe Maura’s someone special, someone different from all the people Jane brushes off, with whom interacting is a chore. She watches Maura climb up the stairs in her soft blue robe to her penthouse apartment and medical degree and she knows she’ll never be like that and Maura will never live in the basement and wear torn jeans and drink beer, but she thinks that maybe they can meet in the middle. She tucks her hands into the single pocket of her hoodie and clucks her tongue for Jo Friday to follow her as they go down the stairs to their basement apartment.

She’s still not wearing pants.


End file.
